Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Just curious...

Has anyone ever seen a completely black leopard gecko? Are there breeding projects for this?

Kelly
1.1.6 Leopard Geckos
1.2.1 Hedgehogs
1.0.0 Mediterranean Gecko
0.0.1 Bearded Dragon

There is the "midnight" morph, if that is what you are thinking...
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0.1 Albino Leo Gecko
0.1 Crested Gecko
1.0 Dear Boyfriend
Departed: Harvey and Spock

I just saw a "melanistic" Leopard Gecko in the 1998 Leopard Gecko book by Tremper and others. When I get home, I'll give you the page numbers and the correct names of the authors.
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4 Corns - Aphrodite (Normal), Freya (Normal), Peyton (Amel), and Kal-El (Lavender)
2 Florida Kings - Thor (Axanthic Brooksi) & Lilith (Normal)
1 Leucistic Texas Rat Snake - MacLeod
1 Taiwan Beauty Snake - Mushu
1 W/C Banded Cal. King - Meridian
1.1 Leopard Geckos HET for Blizzard - Baldur & Nanna
0.0.1 SHCT Baldy Leopard Gecko
2.0 W/C Western Banded Geckos

Okay, the book is, "The Leopard Gecko Manual" by Philippe de Vosjoli, Brian Viets, Ron Tremper and Roger Kingenberg, DVM. There's a picture of a "Melanistic" Leopard Gecko on the lower half of page 61. Its "banded" but I'm not sure if they have a non-banded version.
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4 Corns - Aphrodite (Normal), Freya (Normal), Peyton (Amel), and Kal-El (Lavender)
2 Florida Kings - Thor (Axanthic Brooksi) & Lilith (Normal)
1 Leucistic Texas Rat Snake - MacLeod
1 Taiwan Beauty Snake - Mushu
1 W/C Banded Cal. King - Meridian
1.1 Leopard Geckos HET for Blizzard - Baldur & Nanna
0.0.1 SHCT Baldy Leopard Gecko
2.0 W/C Western Banded Geckos

I believe Ron Tremper stated that he lost the melanistic leopard gecko. In "The Herpetoculture of Leopard Geckos", p. 161 there's a picture of a melanistic juvenile leo. The caption says that it was lost in an accident and that the world is waiting for this rare mutation.

Wow. I wonder what steps a person would take if they were really trying to create a melanistic gecko. It's basically the reverse of a patternless, right?

That is awesome. I wouldn't mind getting a few of those. I see you have a leucistic rat snake....is yours aggressive at all? My buddy has one and that thing strikes at him everytime he's in the cage. Just wondering. Sam.

>>That is awesome. I wouldn't mind getting a few of those. I see you have a leucistic rat snake....is yours aggressive at all? My buddy has one and that thing strikes at him everytime he's in the cage. Just wondering. Sam.

I've got one... he's kinds small for his age since he didn't eat much last winter. He's much better now, but hasn't really taken on much weight.

He has a decent attitude. When we were "tease-feeding" him (basically slapping him in the face with a pinky until he struck it and held on - eventually swallowing it) he was one vicious dude. Now, we feed him in his own tank (something we don't do with any of the other 8 snakes), and he's completely calmed down.

Tell your friend to keep taking him out of his cage for 15 to 20 minutes EVERY DAY without missing any days. That should calm him down nicely. Mac, sometimes, doesn't SEEM to want to go back into his cage... actually constricting my fingers as I try to pry him off to let him down into his enclosure. Wish him the best. I think the Leucistic Texas Rats are extremely beautiful snakes... kinda under-rated in the snake world. I've included an old pic of him with this post.

As for the Melanistic Leopard... I think it would be very awesome to have a setup where you had several blizzard females and several melanistic females in a very large tank. I'd have half of the tank with "black" "furniture" and the other half with "white" "furniture". At least in my mind's eye, it looks kewl! LOL.

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4 Corns - Aphrodite (Normal), Freya (Normal), Peyton (Amel), and Kal-El (Lavender)
2 Florida Kings - Thor (Axanthic Brooksi) & Lilith (Normal)
1 Leucistic Texas Rat Snake - MacLeod
1 Taiwan Beauty Snake - Mushu
1 W/C Banded Cal. King - Meridian
1.1 Leopard Geckos HET for Blizzard - Baldur & Nanna
0.0.1 SHCT Baldy Leopard Gecko
2.0 W/C Western Banded Geckos

That setup would be totally awesome!

Kelly
1.1.6 Leopard Geckos
1.2.1 Hedgehogs
1.0.0 Mediterranean Gecko
0.0.1 Bearded Dragon
Blogs:
tcsleopards1.blogspot.com
tcshedgehogs.blogspot.com

Do a search for "Midnight patternless" or "midnight blizzard" or even melonistic will get you a picture of an all black leopard. It has already been done.
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0.1 Albino Leo Gecko
0.1 Crested Gecko
1.0 Dear Boyfriend
Departed: Harvey and Spock

Actually the one you are refering to is a Black Patternless. Not a Melenistic.
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Thanks,
Jamie and Kayce
cantilxcotton@yahoo.com

1.0 Dark Patternless Leopard Gecko(Giant?)-(Jax)
0.1 Yellow Patternless Leopard Gecko
0.2 Albino Leopard Geckos
1.0 Hypo Tang Leopard Gecko-(Cryp)
0.1 Hypo Leopard Gecko
0.1 80% Black Normal Leopard Gecko
0.1 Chocolate Albino Leopard Gecko
0.1 High Yellow Leopard Gecko-(Oats)
1.0 High Yellow Leopard Gecko-(Wyatt)
0.1 Mack Snow Leopard Gecko-(Potion)
0.1 Ghost Leopard Gecko-(Coffin)
0.0.1 Pastel Leopard Gecko-(Lemon)
0.1 Albino Leopard Gecko-(Kist)
0.1 Bell Albino Leopard Gecko
0.1 High Yellow Leopard Gecko
1.0 Harlequin Dalmation Crested Gecko-(Dali)
1.0 Southern Painted Turtle-(Bat)
0.1 Eastern Cottonmouth-(Fat @$$)
0.2 House Cats-(Cali & Lilly)
0.1 Ausie Shepard-(Jackie)
1.0 Bully Boxer-(River)

So a melanistic leopard has not been created yet, besides Trempers?

Kelly
1.1.6 Leopard Geckos
1.2.1 Hedgehogs
1.0.0 Mediterranean Gecko
0.0.1 Bearded Dragon
Blogs:
tcsleopards1.blogspot.com
tcshedgehogs.blogspot.com